The present invention relates to sheet feeding apparatus, and is particularly directed to an edge aligning device for such apparatus.
The invention is particularly useful in the apparatus for feeding sheets of fabrics, leather, or other limp or porous material, as described in our co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 06/678,585 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,917), and 06/802,170. As therein described, the limpness, softness, porosity and roughness of such sheets have imposed very difficult problems for automatically feeding them. The same problems are also involved in precisely aligning the sheets, which is frequently required in automatic feeding apparatus for the garment industry. One operation in the garment industry which is particularly difficult for automation is the "cuff hemming" operation. This operation, which is usually the first step in the production of shirts, involves sewing liners at precise locations on an underlying strip. Protruding loose threads at the end of the liner sheet are particularly troublesome in precisely aligning the liner, e.g., with an aligning end wall, in an automatic manner. At the present time, because of the difficulty in precisely locating the liners on the underlying strip, this operation is usually performed manually and not automatically.
An object of the present invention is to provide improved sheet feeding apparatus particularly useful for feeding sheets of fabric, leather, or similar types of limp materials. Another object of the invention is to provide an edge aligning device for aligning an edge of individually fed sheets in an automatic manner.